Gone (2006)

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Having touched down in Australia, British backpacker Alex (Shaun Evans - The Boys & Girl from County Clare) is on his way to meet up with his girlfriend Sophie (Amelia Warner) in Byron but has missed his bus connection. It is when he meets American Taylor (Scott Mechlowicz - EuroTrip) who takes him out drinking with some girls for the night and then offers to drive him to Byron. But Taylor's behaviour starts to unsettle him especially when they get to Byron and he decides to continue on the journey of with them.

Watching "Gone" I just couldn't get over the feeling that I had watched it before, I hadn't but "Gone" is one of those movies where we have a creepy person and some travellers. The only difference in its case is we have a couple of Brits and an American in Australia as otherwise there is nothing new or different about it. I suppose if you have never watched one of these hitch-hiking, back packing movies it probably will be entertaining but for those who have it will be both plodding and predictable.

The one thing which has "Gone" for it is the writing of a solitary character because Taylor is a rather disconcerting individual, charming but dangerous. And Scott Mechlowicz does a great job of making the character creepy, making him a quietly dominant being who you are wary of from the start but come more and more wary of the longer it goes on. It is a good job that Taylor is a decent character because those of Alex and Sophie, played by Shaun Evans and Amelia Warner are less convincing and do things you have to question.

Aside from that well there is one good fright which takes you unaware but otherwise there is nothing. Actually there is an idea, there is this psychological aspect of Taylor getting in to Alex's head but unfortunately due to the writing and the acting this side of the movie falls down.

What this all boils down to is that "Gone" is sadly too familiar to be a good movie, it fails to bring anything new or really clever to the already well used concept. As such if you are new to the whole hitch-hiking, back-packing sub-genre of movies it might entertain but if you are not it will be plodding and predictable.